If a child disappears in a cornfield, half the region will search for them: helicopters from two ministries, drones with thermal imagers, boats, ATVs, dog handlers, and mounted police. This is exactly how the search operation looked in the village of Huncovce near Kežmarok, where three-year-old boy Mario went missing on July 27.
The child got lost in a cornfield near a Roma settlement, where plants taller than an adult turned everything into an impenetrable maze. The search lasted more than 30 hours and ended well: on Tuesday, July 28, the boy was found alive and well in the forest, about a kilometer from the settlement. The police told about the operation in a report by ta3.
How they searched
Hundreds of people took part in the search: police officers from the district office in Kežmarok, dog handlers from several regional offices, employees of the Police Presidium, professional and volunteer firefighters, mountain rescuers, military personnel, volunteers, and local residents.
The area was divided into sectors and each was methodically checked: fields, forest belts, bodies of water, abandoned buildings, farm structures, even culverts. From the sky, the space was monitored by helicopters from the ministries of interior and defense, and at night thermal imaging equipment helped the most: drones and handheld devices allowed large areas to be “scanned” in poor visibility.
The neighboring village Veľká Lomnica sent SMS messages to residents asking them to check yards, sheds, and farm buildings because the child could have simply hidden, writes Startitup.sk.
Why searching for a child is harder than for an adult
The police explained that such operations are among the most difficult. A small child moves unpredictably: may not respond to calls, loses orientation, and hides out of fear. Exhausted, they fall asleep where they are almost impossible to notice even up close. Therefore, the search radius was constantly adjusted based on new data from forensic experts and witnesses.
This story with a happy ending is not the rule but an exception. It became possible because the search was quickly deployed over the entire area. If a child disappears, Slovak police advise calling 158 immediately: the myth of the “24-hour waiting period” does not apply here, and the first hours are the most valuable.
